Downwell pumps are placed in a well near its bottom, for providing pressure to move well fluid to the surface. Examples are oil wells and water wells, where the pump draws well fluids from the surrounding formation. Commonly such formations include sand which abrasively wears the pump structure when it passes through the pump. This requires much more frequent pump service than if the pump were pumping a similar fluid without sand in it.
Removal and replacement of a downwell pump is costly both in labor and in production lost due to down time of the well.
The usefulness of screens to protect the pump is more theoretical than actual because of the tendency of screens to clog. Centrifugal separators have proved to be far superior for downhole work, and are exemplified for this purpose by Laval Jr. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,289,608 and 4,072,481, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for their showing of useful structures and utility.
While these show a suitably effective separation of sand ahead of the inlet of the pump, they leave unsolved the optimum disposition of the separated sand. In one embodiment the sand is simply returned to the well, where it can contribute to plugging the formation.
In another, the sand is flushed from a T into a fluid stream that joins the output fluid from the pump on its way to the surface. The problem faced by this arrangement is the possibility that the sand outlet may become plugged or overloaded. In that event, the system will have to be raised to the surface and cleaned out. This is an expensive situation which is intended to be avoided by this invention.